Lee Powder Safety Scale off by six grains???

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longshooter99

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Well I must have an angel watching out for me. Tonight I finally busted out my new Hornady digital scale (GS-1500) and decided to test its accuracy compared to my Lee Safety Powder Scale that came in my Lee Anniversary kit. I had just a tiny bit of trouble with it last fall when I started reloading, namely in the area of measuring 1/10th of a grain as the slide always moved from the slightest touch.

Originally, I thought I was reloading my .270 Win with 56gr of IMR4831 and sort of expected it to be off a couple tenths of an grain. I was way wrong. I poured my powder in the dispenser and threw a charge. It read up 50.4 gr. I thought for sure I hadn't zeroed the scale or bumped my dispenser somehow, so I threw another charge. Exact same reading. Without changing anything, I dug out the old beam scale and poured the charge FROM my digital scale pan TO the Lee pan. After adjustments, it came out to 56.4gr. The minimum charge for my bullets listed 52gr!!!

I ran some more tests with both scales. I took my 130 gr Barnes TTSX bullets and placed them on the Hornady scale. Exactly 130. I tried some 250 gr Hornady XTP bullets. Exactly 250. Finally, I took a Large Rifle Primer and weighed it digitally, which came up to 5.4 gr. Set the primer in the Lee scale, exactly 11.4 gr! :fire:

Anyone else have this problem? I like everything else in my Lee set but have no idea how/why it is consistently off 6gr?? And like I said, I must be on God's good side because I used those .270 this fall AND bagged a nice deer.
 
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Did you zero the lee scale? I zero it every time before starting out.

As far as the 1/10th grain there's a button on the slide to stop it from being moved easy.

Do you have any check weights?

On a side note I know some of the guys that helped to develop the new Hornady scale. I tried to steal the prototype but they wouldn't let me.
 
I'm sure I zeroed but maybe I did it wrong. I read the reloading manual front to back twice just to make sure and even had a friend who reloads (with the same set) help me load my first batch. I debated even posting this because I was sure its some sort of operator error. And no, I didn't have any check weights for it though my Hornady scale has a 100 gram check weight. Its also why I used a primer because the Lee scale only goes up to 100 grains.
 
I have on that is off by 2.3 grains. It was taken out of the box, checked against a known accurate 505 and confirmed a liar with a set of check weights, put back in the box never to be seen again. I actually forgot about it until I read your post. :)
 
Glad I'm not the only one! Well sorta, don't want anyone to get hurt. But it does make sense now. My first batch I started with the 52gr starting load, which now should be more like 46gr. The recoil was so mild it was almost like shooting my old 6.5 Swede! Maybe I found a nice "managed recoil" load! :p
 
That is certainly one way to look at it. Glad you found out the scale was off, before trying to load pistol rounds, that could have turned out to be a very bad day.:uhoh:
 
Actually, I just started reloading 45 LC for my dad TONIGHT Glock. He's been wanting me to load some since last fall but I kept telling him I wanted a more trustworthy scale first!

As for Lee, I'm tempted to call them up....
 
This is the first thread anywhere where I heard a Lee scale was off let alone of 6 full grains. Something is just not right with the adjustments.

Sure the scale is a pain to use and it's not expensive but it's always been accurate to my knowledge.
 
Give them a call, I mean all they can do is not replace the scale. All of the interactions I have had with them has been ok. I didn't try to return mine, I just went with a RCBS 502 and it has served me well.
 
Yeah I'm definitely going to recheck my manual and call Lee. I just took my .270 dummy round I made and checked it against the some of the loaded rounds I had leftover. Loaded rounds all weighed right about 370gr (+-up to .3) while the dummy weighed (adding the 5.4gr of the primer) 320gr. A difference of 50gr and still right at 6gr short. This is turning into one heck of a night ha!
 
My hornaday scale is off by several grains. I have to return it to the factory. I finally bought a scale that reads hundredths of a grain and I really like it.
 
The clue here is that the scale is off by 6 grains over the entire range of weights you tested. That is just a zero-ing error.

Set the slide to 0.0 and push in the little black button to lock it. Put the empty pan on there. Put the ball bearing in the 0 slot. Then turn the brass adjustment weight until the pointer centers on the line.
 
As a test try this. Set your scale to 34.5 grains, put a dime in, use the brass adjustment so it measures to 34.5 (not all dimes weigh the same, this is not to be used for testing your weight).

Then try setting the weight to your powder, and double check on the other scale, are you still off by 4-6 grains? If so, you do have an issue with the scale. If not, you're doing something wrong when you zero it.

You could use your other scale to weight the dime, mark it down, then set your Lee to that weight, and use the dime as a check weight. That should make it more accurate than just using the 34.5 that my dime weights.

I zero my scale, and then I use check weights around the load I'm going to load to verify. I'm confident my Lee Scale is working.
 
Andrew Leigh said:
More importantly for those who have yet to buy the said scale. What does Lee have to say about this? What if it was the other way around?
Click to expand...
Mine is the other way around. Never used my Lee Safety Scale for loading but I do have one. So I dug it out.

I used a 50 grain weight which I know to be accurate from my check weight set. Weighed it on my old RCBS digital made by PACT. Weighs 50.0 grains. Moved the weight to my old Lyman M5 beam scale and it again weighs 50.0 grains. Weighing it on the Lee Safety Scale following a good zero on a level surface I get about 49.55 grains or an error of -.45 grain. To get the scale to read 50.0 the weight on the scale would need to be 50.45 grains.

Lee does not call out an accuracy specification in any of their documentation for this scale. Then too, I have seen very few manufacturers of these basic powder scales call out an accuracy specification.

All of that said I can't begin to fathom a 6.0 grain error. This is where I would like a good set of check weights and look at several cardinal points between for example 0 and 100 grains. For example following a good zero weigh 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 grains and note the error at each point.

Ron
 
MEHavey said:
(One) bad zero cause here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IJWuwYEY8s
Click to expand...
With all due respect to the guy who made the video the zero procedure is hard to screw up:

Lee%20Safety%20Scale.png

Setup:

1 Place scale base on flat level surface

2 Set both poises to zero and lock the grain poise by pushing
the poise lock in. Be sure the .1 ( A/aj ) grain is ZERO.

3 Place beam onto the base and hang the pan from beam.
Be sure beam swings freely.

4 Turn the zero adjusting poise to align the beam pointer to the
zero indicator on the base. This should always be done before
use or if the scale has been moved or bumped.
Click to expand...

That ball poise is blatantly obvious. You can't miss the zero detent the ball sits in and when in the zero detent it's obvious where the ball sits. On my scale it is just about impossible to get the ball to travel and remain to the right of the zero detent.

Ron
 
As a aside, on the brass adj. knob I put a drop of locketite on the threads. It stiffens it up enough as to not vibrate or move if not intentionally moving it.
 
The razor inside the razor housing must be aligned in the pivot notch of the base. If it is off center or resting on either edge of the pivot notch, then the scale will not weigh properly. This can even account for a 6 grain error.
 
Glad it wasn't throwing 6 grains HIGH. When I started I used three scales. Old ohaus/RCBS, new old stock Redding and cheap digital. Only after check weights and weighing identical stuff on all three multiple times did I stop using the others and stick with redding.
 
I think 6 grains is too much variance. A call to Lee would be a good idea.

But to verify the accuracy of any scale, I highly recommend the use of check weights in the weight range of your powder charges.

I have two Ohaus 10-10 scales and Lee scale and both read accurate to Ohaus Class 6 stainless check weights. Both Ohaus and Lee scales detected one piece of 1/4"x1/4" 20 lb copy paper which weighs around .05 grain.

If you do not have check weights handy, 2-3 piece of 1/4"x1/4" 20 lb copy paper should register around 0.1 grain (handle paper pieces with twizzers to prevent contamination) - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=9596742#post9596742
 
One thing the guy in the video should have mention Rule three is, that you have 3 line's on the 10th scale. You use the middle line to get your measurement. If you're at 0, you will see a line on 1, 0, 9 (0 being in the middle). If you're at 9, you will see the lines at 8, 9, 0 (9 being in the middle).
 
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